PM nominates Caroline Maynard as next access-to-information watchdog

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that he has nominated lawyer Caroline Maynard as Canada’s next access-to-information watchdog.

Maynard has been serving as the interim chairperson and CEO of the Military Grievances External Review Committee since early 2017. She was just reappointed to the position for a three-month term in January.

Trudeau has appointed Maynard as new information commissioner for a seven-year term, although the nomination is subject to approval by the House of Commons and the Senate. Maynard would replace current Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault, whose original mandate expired almost eight months ago.

“With her extensive legal background and leadership experience, Caroline Maynard would be an excellent Information Commissioner,” Trudeau wrote in a news release distributed Wednesday afternoon. “She has a deep appreciation of the need for an open and transparent government, and I trust she would do an outstanding job on delivering the mandate of the Office of the Information Commissioner.”

The release highlighted Maynard’s two decade-long career with the federal government. Prior to her appointment as interim chairperson and CEO of the military grievances review body, she served as director of operations and general counsel to the committee.

Before that, she worked as legal counsel in the office of the Judge Advocate General at National Defence, as well as on the RCMP’s external review committee and at the Canada Revenue Agency, according to a biography posted on the government’s website.

The information commissioner is an independent officer of Parliament responsible for administering Canada’s access-to-information laws.

News of Maynard’s appointment comes as the Senate is reviewing a Liberal bill that proposes some major amendments to the Access to Information Act – the first sweeping changes since 1983.

Legault has been outspoken in her opposition to Bill C-58. She slammed the legislation as “regressive” in a blistering report published in September.

Civil liberties groups, media outlets, and First Nations are among those who also oppose the bill.

Trudeau extended Legault’s term for a second time mid-December. Legault has served as information watchdog since June 2010.